The Accountable Futures Collective and Mounty Aboriginal Youth & Community Services will use the $1.25 million funding to develop a new framework designed by young people, particularly those who have experienced harm within existing systems.

“We’re excited to bring together an emerging national network of youth-driven organisations that we hope will change the outdated and inconsistent current standards and ways of working with young people,” said Tasha Ritchie, Chief Executive Officer, Accountable Futures Collective.

The project will unfold across three phases: creating conditions for collaboration in Year 1, co-designing and testing the standards in Year 2, and embedding them across services and sectors in Years 3-5.

At least 20 young people will take up leadership roles across design, governance, and advocacy, with the first iteration of the framework launching by 2027.

"This will address root causes by fundamentally changing who holds power, whose knowledge counts, and how decisions are made," Tasha said.

While the project aims to directly benefit 100 people, the organisation expects it will indirectly help more than three million young Australians through transformed systems and services.

The Alannah & Madeline Foundation will use its $1.17 million grant to expand its Necessary Trouble Collaborative, a coalition of 15 leading organisations.

Patrick O’Callaghan, Head of Development at the Foundation said young people were facing overlapping social, environmental, political, economic, and technological crises.

“The current system supporting children and young people is at breaking point - fragmented, overwhelmed, and struggling to adapt,” Patrick said.

“We believe the systemic challenge of our time is how we come together to make collective progress on the most pressing issues for children and young people."

He said the Collaborative will tackle shared challenges, focusing initially on policy advocacy, mental health, and the under-supported ‘missing middle’ years (ages 5-12).

This will be followed by the development of a Good Design Guide that will offer practical frameworks and tools informed directly by children and young people.

Case studies will document successful youth-centred initiatives, while a Community of Practice will foster shared learning and amplify collective impact.

By 2027, the Collaborative will publish the Good Design Guide featuring case studies and reaching stakeholders nationwide.

Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) is the country’s independent, trusted voice for reliable and informed evidence on domestic, family and sexual violence.  

ANROWS will use its $1.25 million to transform how child welfare and youth services are created and delivered, by placing children and young people in the designer's chair. A dedicated design team of six young people, supported by a wider group of 15 participants, is at the project’s core.

ANROWS CEO Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine said that placing children and young people at the centre of design meant they could move beyond gestures towards practical ways to strengthen services and accountability to the people those services exist to support.

“Young people will shape what is built, tested and shared, supported by a rigorous process that connects lived experience with evidence and service expertise, she said. “This is not consultation at the margins. It is how systems can learn and improve.

“Our focus is not only on what we learn, but on how it’s applied. The tools, frameworks and training from this work will support services to translate insight into practice and build capability across the child welfare and youth sectors.”

 ANROWS was established by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments under Australia’s first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010–2022).

As an ongoing partner to the National Plan, ANROWS continues to build, strengthen and translate the evidence base that informs the current National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032.

The Foyer Foundation provides young people with a safe, stable home for up to two years, combined with education, employment, and life skill supports.

There are already 18 Accredited Youth Foyers currently supporting more than 650 young people in Australia. This $1.5 million funding will see the organisation, in partnership with National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Housing Association (NATSIHA), co-design, implement and scale at least 10 dedicated First Nations-led Youth Foyers, addressing the reality that one-third of young people experiencing homelessness are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

“The odds are stacked against these projects in our complex, federated funding environment,” says CEO Liz Cameron-Smith. “But we want to disrupt this reality by diverting resources towards the First Nations sector and enable them to adopt and adapt Youth Foyers and unlock thriving futures for young First Nations people.

“There is unlikely to be a one-size fits all approach – the new Foyers have to be designed for each community context, and we might end up with different models in regional settings compared to metro settings, for instance.”

Liz said the Brian M. Davis Charitable Foundation funding was important to moving beyond the status quo

“We see a lot of philanthropy and government grants that can be quite programmatic and there is probably a bias towards funding things that are well evidenced,” she said. “Obviously, that is important and we believe in that too, but if that is all you fund, there is limited capacity in the system to do the work that challenges systems to shift or that creates space for different sorts of partnerships and learning networks to emerge.”